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Phenological studies of shrub and treelet species in tropical cloud forests of Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Suzanne Koptur ,
William A. Haber ,
Gordon W. Frankie  and
Herbert G. Baker
Suzanne Koptur*
Affiliation:
Department of BotanyUniversity of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
William A. Haber
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Gordon W. Frankie
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Herbert G. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of BotanyUniversity of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
*
‡Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
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Abstract

(1) During 1978–1981, marked individuals of 107 species of treelets and shrubs in three forest types between 1300–1650 m elevation at Monteverde, Costa Rica, were monitored at monthly intervals for behaviour of leafing, flowering, and fruiting.

(2) Although there was not a pronounced seasonal pattern of leafing activity, more species produced new leaves in the dry season. Species that flush large quantities of new leaves do so more commonly in the drier months. Leaf loss was gradual and unobtrusive in species observed.

(3) Flowering activity was greatest in the late dry season and early wet season. Most species exhibited extended flowering; only 15% of the species were massively flowering. Massive flowerers showed less seasonality than extended flowerers.

(4) Of the species studied, the majority had relatively unspecialized flowers which were visited by a variety of insects; small bee-pollination was the next most common, followed by hummingbird, beetle, settling moth, sphingid, butterfly, large bee and fly pollination (the pollination system of 18 species was unknown). Hummingbird pollinated species showed little seasonality of flowering when compared with species exhibiting small moth, and beetle pollination syndromes, as well as those with unspecialized flowers.

(5) The vast majority of species studied have fleshy fruits (sarcochores). Fruiting activity was less markedly seasonal than flowering. Species with fruit are more numerous in the second half of the year (the wet season and early dry season). The second year of the study saw substantially fewer species in fruit than the first year; this is attributed to the greater than usual rainfall and inclement weather during the peak flowering season.

(6) Cloud forest shrub and treelet phenology is compared with patterns of other forests that have been studied. In general, the greater the rainfall, the less seasonality of flowering and fruiting is seen. Although Monteverde is very wet, rainfall is intermediate between that of lowland dry and lowland wet forest in Costa Rica. Seasonality of flowering and fruiting at Monteverde is more pronounced than at La Selva (wet) and less obvious than in Guanacaste (dry).

Keywords

Costa Ricafloweringfruitingleafingphenologypollinationshrubstreeletstropical
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , November 1988 , pp. 323 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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